Child
by rottopyrrah
Summary: A stranger enters a bedroom from the balcony doors of a house in a cold, dark forest in which a child is reading.


Child

It was a cold dark night in the town of Glass (it would never turn into a city because all of the residents did not want higher property taxes, curse those), and it was even colder and darker in the surrounding woods in which lived a single man and his genius of a daughter (her ill mother had passed away in the previous year). Together, they resided in an average sized house with a balcony (which led into what the happy family called the "princess room" in which the little girl spent her nights), perfect for the two of them and their live in cook/ nanny, Jean.

On weekdays, the man would jump in his car and leave his daughter in the car of Jean while he went to town to work as a college professor and "steal" books from the school's rather extensive library. On weekends, the professor would take his daughter into the woods surrounding their home and teach her all that he knew about society for she already knew how to teach herself from textbooks.

Not a single soul in town knew that the professor had a child for Jean was sworn to secrecy and hardly ever left the house anyways. The professor thought he was protecting his precious child from the judging and sometimes even nasty hearts of the townspeople.

The significance of the cold dark night in the forest surrounding the quaint little town is another man, one with waves of darkness emanating from his being. The dark man soared onto the balcony of the average sized house and opened the glass doors to let himself into the bedroom beyond before closing them behind him. The little girl inside was not asleep, contrary to what her father and Jean thought. She was reading from a borrowed Developmental Psychology textbook under her sheets with a flashlight.

"I hear it's bad to read in low light," the stranger comments with a SEXY British accent..

The little girl looks up in near shock with her bespectacled eyes. She had heard the balcony door being opened earlier and logically concluded that there was another person in the room with her, she did not expect for this person to comment on her reading in the dark however. The stranger was definitely dark. She scrutinized his appearance, he had dark hair which was styled in the scene or Asian pop star fashion, a tall, lean, and barely muscular frame, and a pair of thick rimmed square glasses in front of his eyes she could not get a clear color from. She shined her flashlight in his direction, he barely flinched. "That's not really true. Most experts agree that reading in the dark does not have any _long term_ effects," the girl replies in the way all toddlers speak.

"Some experts believe that it can cause nearsightedness," the stranger walks across the floor and sits on the girl's bed. She frowns at the stranger and self-consciously touches her glasses.

"Do not worry my dear, I think spectacles are adorable."

"I don't care what you think, four eyes." She huffs while crossing her adorably stubby arms over her chest.

The stranger laughs lightly (he did not want to wake her guardians) and asked the girl to tell him her name to which she replied Kirsten, being the small and trusting toddler with hardly any common sense in her being. As one might say, she's book smart but definitely not street smart. He then proceeded to inquire about her age to which she responded three and a half years old (as a young child, the half is very important.) The stranger admires her golden blond hair which tumbled down her back in waves, her fair skin and rosy cheeks, her large blue eyes which are magnified by the glasses she has perched on the bridge of her small and button like nose, and her small pink mouth.

"I like your house. I think I want to live here," the stranger tells Kirsten.

"Well you can't 'cause its mine and I don't want to give it to you," she huffs again.

The stranger laughs again and responds with "What is yours will one day be mind and what is mine will be yours as well."

She tilts her head questioningly at the stranger, "So you want to share then?"

"In a sense, I suppose it's like sharing. But one day, you are going to be my wife."

"Kay." Kirsten responds with a smile. "But I'm tired now so you have to go. And you can't hold me responsible for this _emgagement_ thing 'cause I'm only three and a half years old and most three and a half year olds don't really remember anything before the age of four so if I forget you and stuff, you can't make me go do the _emgagement,_ okay? And I'm too little to have a fancy anyways. Daddy says I have to wait until I'm 25 years old."

"But are you not a child that is considered above average? Would you not remember this _engagement _as well? And it's fiancé, darling." he asks the girl, putting emphasis on the 'en' in engagement.

"Okay, how old are you anyways?" she inquires, choosing to ignore what she felt were rude corrections on her speech. She was only three and a half years old, after all. "You had to have known about the memory of a child."

He smirks at her and tells her that he is a whopping 405 years old and that he has studied developmental psychology several times.

"Then why did you come right now? If you knew I wasn't gunna remember you asking me to get an engagement with you then why do you want to trick me like that?" Kirsten frowns at the stranger again, eyes drooping for every toddler, no matter how smart, can only run for so long before shutting down. The stranger tucks Kirsten into bed and kisses her forehead.

"We can talk some more tomorrow Kirsten. Goodnight."


End file.
